Summer — 2006

Caitlin Conroy

Photography

“Get a counselor! It’s always hard starting out, and my first semester at SMC was a disaster because I did all my planning myself. Counselors here can help you make a plan that you can excel with.”

Well, that first semester—with all its ‘adds’ and ‘drops’—was a bummer for Caitlin Conroy. But since then, she’s settled in a lot more comfortably at SMC, and her direction has definitely firmed up. “I’m sort of in the middle of spending a couple of semesters getting my requirements out of the way. But as soon as I’ve got them done,” she says, “I’m going right back into photography. I’m really partial to shooting landscapes, and I hadn’t really given much thought to portraiture before I got to SMC. But I did a lot of extra credit work in my Photo I class on portraits,” she says, “and I feel like the results really came out beautifully.”

Right along with every other photographer, Caitlin finds herself amidst a real revolution in the methods that capture images and then produce them. “I think that it’s a pretty amazing time to be in photography because you’ve got the ‘traditional’ and the digital fields to deal with,” she says. “I’m actually more proficient in the digital approach, but it’s also great to have a background in the time-tested ways of producing an image. There’s just something about shooting actual film,” she continues, “that appeals to me more. You get more texture, more interesting grain on film. Maybe even more art!”

Caitlin says that, for her, SMC is just about the picture-perfect place for the transition from high school to university studies. “SMC is a great sort of a ‘middle ground’ where you can explore all the options before you make the Big Decision!” she says with her delightful laugh. “And you pay a heck of a lot less here than you can even dream of at a university. And right now—at least in my life—the $26 we pay here for each credit unit seems to me to be an incredibly good deal.”

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